


signal.

by ansutazu



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/F, lapslock
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2020-03-01 10:12:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18798265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ansutazu/pseuds/ansutazu
Summary: trying to let you know. // short eliumi one-shot.





	signal.

the scenario is the cliche of any daydream — she works in a coffee shop as a barista, though only part-time as she is a full-time college student majoring in economics. her preference is tea over coffee, so she wonders why she’s working in such a fan fiction-like setting, but she knows she’s got to get with the grind in order to support herself and her studies.

for the most part, it’s a normal job. nothing much of it. but it’s the lull of it all that’s exactly like the stories she reads, and she’s silently prepared herself for the coffee shop au she just knows she’ll get herself into.

but she didn’t think it’d go like _this_.

“can i get a small green tea, please?”

cherry blossom petals felt like they were obscuring eli’s vision with just the very sight of this girl. the girl in front of her sleek, dark blue hair that shines in the light of the coffee shop in the most elegant of way, and even so much as staring this much into her golden eyes felt like she was taking someone’s treasure away. her expression is neutral, but she could still see her delicate features. she’s dressed rather neatly, a pink turtleneck accented with a long, brown skirt and a beret that she think is just such a cute touch.

“small green…” eli can barely register (nice pun) her fingers typing up the order, but she’s committed the menu to muscle memory, so it’s still put through. “small green tea. name?”

the girl’s voice is so nice — strong in a way that it carries depth, like when the waves roll into the beach, but not too heavily. it’s like being on a boat and staring into the blue water, wanting to jump into it because it just feels so, _so_ inviting.

“…mhm. thank you. next.”

eli’s reluctant to have the girl leave, but it’s a rather busy time at the coffee shop, right in the middle of the afternoon when a lot of people have finished classes and are about to start studying. the girl walks away to a table, and eli looks down at the cup —

oh fuck.

she’d been too distracted to realize that she didn’t write down the girl’s name — in fact, she didn’t even _hear_ her name. all she heard were sounds mozart or beethoven or bach could never dream to create — that’s how beautiful this girl’s voice was. but now all that was left of their interaction was what looked like to be a sine wave, or was it a cosine wave? which one started at zero and which one started at one again?

no, no — this is a problem. she sets it on the counter for the person to make the small green tea — she didn’t get that wrong, at least. but when her co-worker, kotori, picks up the cup and looks at the name, she gives eli a suspiciously playful look, and she knows she’s been caught in the act of getting to distracted by a pretty girl to actually do her job.

did she read this somewhere before?

she takes two more orders, and the line’s gone, which means that she can focus on calling out the names of the people’s drinks once they’re finished. kotori’s quick with making the drinks — and she’s glad that kotori’s this reliable, but she didn’t think she’d have to call out cute girl’s scribbled name so quickly. then again, tea is pretty easy to make. it’s just hot water and a tea bag. but still…

sana. ayano. kanan. those orders are called out — an extremely sweet latte, an americano, a rather complicated secret menu item — and taken by their respective customers, and soon she has to face the reality that the girl from before is sitting at a table, waiting for her tea, and eli, holding the tea in her hand, but rather frazzled about the fact that she can’t give it to her because _she didn’t write down her name_.

_come on, eli, think_. was this cliche? oh, for sure. this is the textbook definition of it. getting so distracted she couldn’t do her job, and now she has to fix it. but she can’t exactly just call out ‘cute girl sitting at that table, here’s your small green tea’, can she? no, that’d be weird, and she can’t have that! and there’s still customers around.

and so she stares at the tea for a couple of minutes — literally. five minutes literally pass of her just staring at the tea, as if _that_ will do anything. no. kotori’s chuckling in the corner, and she could feel the teasing gaze that kotori has when she knows eli’s off her game.

maybe she could signal the girl over to her. she stares at her for a good second, and she wonders if she gets the message, the hint that she’s trying to send. is she receiving it? why won’t she look over this way? she’s just trying to let her know.

oh right, because it doesn’t work like this.

the tea is getting colder by the second — that’s no good. does the girl think the tea’s taking an usual amount of time to get to her? but she hasn’t gotten up and asked about it — millennial behavior, she guesses. the girl’s got her nose stuck in a book, and from the looks of it, it’s a textbook. she’s highlighting and taking notes in the margins — a studious person. eli likes that.

oh god, corny. _corny_. she felt that in her mouth. it’s like black coffee.

okay, okay. eli ayase, you can do this. you can talk to her. _bring the tea to her_.

she walks around the counter and picks up the tea, taking a deep breath — oh, she better check her apron, because there’s nothing better than stalling in the oddest of ways, right? but eli has a habit of keeping her apron clean, and when she checks for anything, it’s just that — spotless.

finally, she turns around and begins walking her way over to the girl, who looks up from her textbook with an expression so divine eli’s surprised that her hands and legs just didn’t give way. the girl’s just _looking_ at her, but the impact was there.

“sorry,” eli begins, and god, this interaction would be part of a bad example from ‘having a conversation for dummies’. but she has dignity, and she knows her responsibilities, and no matter what, she has to fix it. that’s the way she was raised, and that’s the way that she is. “i didn’t catch your name, so i couldn’t call it out when your tea was ready. but here it is. i hope it’s still hot.”

she hands the cup over, and their fingers briefly touch — and just like that, sparks fly like electricity, and she wonders if the girl felt it, too. or was it just static? nonetheless, the sensation brings eli to her senses for a second, awakens her distraught brain into one that’s somewhat functioning.

“that’s fine,” the girl answers, wrapping her hands around the cup. “it’s still warm. thank you.”

“no problem.”

silence. she should just leave now, right? she should just go? it’s awkward like this, a barista standing near a customer rather than working.

but this was the scenario she’s always read about, right? the one she’s always prepared for? it’d be a waste to just… _waste_ it.

“my name is eli ayase,” eli says, cracking a small smile, “and i’d like to know yours, since i didn’t get it the first time.”

“oh?” the girl glances at eli from the side, and her lips curve up just a little. “it’s…”

**Author's Note:**

> you know the name, right. say the name.
> 
> anyway, here's something quick; it's okay. stream signal


End file.
